Cover Story  

Transforming the Structure of a Health System

Declining margins, a slow economic recovery, and the forecast of lower Medicare payments are prompting hospitals to adopt new business models that connect quality to financial success. 

By Patrick Reilly

Features

Special Section: Chair Profile

An Open Book for Leadership

HFMA's 2012-13 Chair, Ralph E. Lawson, FHFMA, CPA, wants to keep the Association at the forefront of the changes facing health care today and beyond. 

The Value of Mobile Apps in Health Care

Learn how mobile applications and technologies are improving quality of care, patient satisfaction, safety, and convenience-and reducing costs. 

By Jeni Williams

Web Extra: Learn what precautions hospitals should take to protect security of mobile apps and devices in their organization.

Avoiding the Performance Improvement Trap

U.S. hospitals that have implemented highly touted performance improvement tools have nonetheless continued to see operating expenses grow. The problem may be in how they have implemented these tools. 

By Robert Betka

Web Extra: Healthcare leaders have deployed a number of performance improvement tools for various purposes over the past three decades.

Redesigning Nurse Staffing Plans for Acute Care Hospitals

At Johnson City Medical Center in Tennessee, a team approach to better managing nurse staffing not only saved $7 million annually in contract labor costs, but also led to increased nursing satisfaction.

By Patricia Niday, Yolanda (Yoli) Otero Inman, Lisa Smithgall, Shane Hilton, Sharron Grindstaff, Debbie McInturff

Web Extra: Learn about other strategies for maximizing staffing for nursing departments, and view addtional data regarding the success of Johnson City Medical Center's efforts.

Transforming Labor-Management Practices Through Real-Time Analytics

Catholic Health Partners used real-time reporting and metrics to enhance its workforce performance, saving the organization $13.5 million in operating costs. 

By Kathye Habig Nippert, Brian Graves

Web Extra: Catholic Health Partners delivers labor management data in reports that are shared across regions so local managers can make corrections to their labor practices.

Ensuring the Validity of Labor Productivity Benchmarking

When comparing a hospital's labor productivity with that of peer hospitals, finance leaders should keep in mind some limitations of the most widely used metrics. 

By Mo Kirtane

Physician Alignment Strategies and Real Estate

Hospitals acquiring real estate associated with physician alignment should understand the implications on ambulatory network planning, service delivery and distribution, and real estate capital planning. 

By Thomas Czerniak

Developing Work RVUs for Production-Based Physician Compensation Programs

Work RVUs production compensation programs need to be designed and administered correctly to avoid miscalculations in payment and regulatory noncompliance. 

By Herd Midkiff, Elizabeth Cordaro

Targeted Population Health Management Can Help a Hospital Grow Market Share

By implementing a targeted and measurable employer wellness strategy, St. Luke's Hospital has improved its reputation as a hospital of choice for employers and employees in the greater St. Louis area.  

By Gary Olson, Pearson Talbert

Focus Areas 

Integration   

Hospital-Physician Partnerships: A Fairy Tale?   

To work together well, clinical and finance leaders should recognize cultural causes of tension, conduct honest conversations to build trust, and acknowledge their own blind spots to understanding. 

By Kathleen Sanford   

Physician Relations   

Integration: From Structural to Functional

Hospitals and physician practices can be structurally or functionally integrated, but those that are structurally integrated often do not function as integrated health systems. 

By Marc Halley

Columns

From the Chair

Leadership Matters

Healthcare finance leaders have a responsibility today to guide others who are searching for solutions to the healthcare cost challenge.  

By Ralph Lawson, FHFMA, CPA

From the President

A Time for New Beginnings

This is a time when we can choose the ways to move forward. The key is simply to start moving. 

By Joseph Fifer, FHFMA, CPA

From the Editor

The Drive to Learn

Healthcare finance leaders understand the importance of continuous learning and experimentation.  

By Robert Fromberg, Editor-in-Chief

HFMA Interview

Transition in Leadership: A Conversation with HFMA's Dick Clarke and Joe Fifer

HFMA's new president and CEO, Joseph J. Fifer, and former president and CEO, Richard L. Clarke, share their perspectives on the value of HFMA and how its members can promote health system change. 

Eye on Washington

Will "Local" Hospitals Continue to Be the Center of the Delivery System?

In response to unsustainable cost growth, employers and carriers are deploying a number of tactics to reduce healthcare total expenditures and improve quality. 

By Chad Mulvaney

Web Extra: In response to unsustainable cost growth, employers and carriers are deploying a number of tactics to reduce healthcare total expenditures and improve quality.

Business Intelligence

Integrating Physician Perspectives into Business Intelligence

Creating a physician-driven health system requires capturing the right data, analyzing patient and practice information, establishing physician leaders, and fostering a physician leadership culture. 

By Dean Coddington, Keith Moore

Healthcare Value

Value: Locating the Hidden Savings in Clinical Care

Taking steps to reduce preventable complications will help providers reduce mortality rates and healthcare costs and will improve the organization's financial performance.  

By John Byrnes

5 Ways To...

5 Ways to Decrease Recriutment Costs

Here are five recruitment metrics every hospital should track to reduce costs, enhance efficiency, and protect revenue.  

By Mike Soisson

Data Trends

Variability in Service Line Costs for Heart Failure and Shock

By analyzing the portion of total costs allocated to each service within a given MS-DRG, utilization patterns may detected that can lead to improved cost efficiencies.  

By William Shoemaker

Etcetera

Member Spotlight: National Park Education

Executive Interview

Michael Rose and Rachel Rowe: Providing Better  Care at an Affordable Cost

Publication Date: Friday, June 01, 2012